Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe urges batsmen to play bigger innings

Captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza wants Bangladesh batsmen to focus on getting bigger individual scores once they have played themselves in.

Sports Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 27 Sept 2016, 04:54 PM
Updated : 27 Sept 2016, 06:08 PM

In Sunday's tense seven-run win against Afghanistan, Tamim Iqbal walked back after a fine 80 before the untimely departures of Mahmudullah (62) and Shakib Al Hasan (48) restricted the Tigers to 265.

It was the first instance of both teams being bowled out in the last ball of an ODI.

When the situation demanded calm approach, all of them got dismissed going for big shots – and even Tamim, whose 98-ball innings was much composed, was at fault.

Despite looking edgy initially, Imrul Kayes stroked 37 but he, too, fell making a poor judgement and got his stumps rattled.

Mashrafe sounded a bit disappointed with the efforts of the senior batsmen as he spoke to the reporters on Tuesday.

"Tamim, Imrul, Riyad (Mahmudullah) and Shakib got out after getting set. A big score needs big innings from two players, but four of our batsmen got starts but could not get a big score," Mashrafe said on the eve of the second ODI of the three-match series.

"We could have scored 280, 290, maybe even 300. But it was no longer possible after they got out…"

Scoring and chasing down totals of 300 or more is no longer a rarity in ODIs in this era. In fact, sometimes 350 is not a safe total nowadays on a batting wicket.

The ODIs against Afghanistan are meant to groom Bangladesh for their forthcoming tough series against England, who have taken aggressive batting to a different level over the last year and a half.

It is unmistakable that big scores are no longer a luxury for teams, rather a necessity to win matches.

"Tamim and Riyad (Mahmudullah) know they could have both scored centuries. Shakib had the chance of hitting a fifty. We failed in these areas in the previous match.

"We will play against a better team after this series. Chasing 280 or 300 is quite common nowadays. We have to regularly score 300 on batting tracks.

"If our batsmen don't play big knocks, the task becomes harder."

Bangladesh have only 35 individual centuries in 313 ODIs so far.